What free will means for us as individuals depends on what we identify with.
We feel free whenever we love and identify with the powers that push us around, we don’t feel free when that is not the case.
Accordingly, as long as we identify with one small creature in the midst of a large world, our sense of freedom is relative and short-lived. In such a state, our actions appear to be determined either by forces coming from inside, or by forces coming from outside. When the inner ones win, we feel free, when the outer ones win, we don’t.
As we grow spiritually, we begin to identify with deeper and deeper layers of our nature. So when a time comes when we identify with something deeper than the biological and social drives that push us around, we don’t feel free anymore.
Since our identification deepens in stages, there are periods when we feel free (or rather when the whole issue of freedom doesn’t arise for us) and periods when we do not feel free. This periodic unease continues as long as we feel a division between inner and outer.
Permanent freedom comes when the division between inner and outer disappears completely. This can happen in two ways. One is in an absolute inner silence. The other is in identification with our soul. Since the soul is in charge of our individual life in exactly the same way that the Divine is in charge of the manifestation as a whole, there is then perfect harmony between inner and outer, between ourselves and the Divine. Then, and only then there is total freedom.